As a flat belt or a toothed belt which is used for transmitting power or transporting objects, there is an open end belt (refer to (A) of FIG. 13) having both end portions, in addition to an endless belt having no ends. The endless belt having no ends is annularly formed in a cylindrical mold. On the other hand, since the open end belt having both end portions can be continuously formed by extrusion molding or the like, the length thereof can be freely selected. Use examples of such an open end belt having both end portions include a mechanism (refer to (B) of FIG. 13) in which each of both end portions of an open end belt that is a toothed belt is fixed, a cart or the like having a gear engageable with teeth of the toothed belt is mounted between the end portions, and the cart or the like is caused to reciprocate within a certain area, and a mechanism (refer to (C) of FIG. 13) in which both end portions of an open end belt are connected by means of a connecting member and the connecting member is caused to reciprocate within a certain area.
Another use example of the open end belt includes a lifting and transporting device 500 illustrated in FIG. 14. In the lifting and transporting device 500, use is made of a belt mechanism in which an open end-type flat belt 100 that hangs down from a flat pulley 510 disposed at an upper side and an open end-type toothed belt 200 that meshes with teeth of a toothed pulley 520 disposed at a lower side are combined. In such a belt mechanism, the flat belt 100 and the toothed belt 200 are made into an annular form by fixing and connecting the both ends thereof each other by means of coupler portions 310 and 410. Thus, teeth of the toothed belt 200 are meshed with the teeth of the toothed pulley 520 and the rotation-drive or reverse rotation-drive of the toothed pulley 520, which is a drive pulley, is synchronized to transmit the power to the belt mechanism and an object to be transported 560 put on a loading bed 550 fixed to two of the belt mechanisms is moved up and down.
In the above-mentioned belt mechanism where the both ends of the flat belt 100 and the toothed belt 200 are fixed by means of the coupler portions 310 and 410, in the case of the toothed belt 200, a tooth portions 201 of the toothed belt 200 are fixed by being meshed with a tooth portions 203 formed on a fixing bracket 202 of the coupler portions 310 and 410 as illustrated in (A) of FIG. 15 (e.g., Patent Document 1). In this case, since the tooth portions 201 of the toothed belt 200 are meshed with the tooth portions 203 of the fixing bracket 202, slipping is unlikely to occur on the toothed belt 200. On the other hand, in the case of the flat belt 100, once it is fixed by means of a flat plate-shaped fixing bracket 204 as illustrated in (B) of FIG. 15 (e.g., Patent Document 2), the slipping of the flat belt 100 might occur on the coupler portions 310 and 410 since the flat belt 100 is not meshed with the fixing bracket 204.
Hence, there is a method in which the flat belt 101 is wound around the winding core 102 and the flat belt 101 and a metal cover case 105 are fixed by means of a bolt or the like (e.g., screws 103 and bolts 104) as illustrated in FIG. 16 in order to restrict the slipping in the case of fixing the flat belt to the coupler (e.g., Patent Document 3). In this case, since frictional force is exerted to an extent that the flat belt 101 is wound around the winding core 102, the slipping can be restricted in the case of fixing the flat belt 101 to the coupler portions 310 and 410.